Report: Embarrassing attendance forces NHL team to make arena changes

A sad day for this historic franchise.

According to a report from Detroit Red Wings blog Wings Nation, team president Chris Granger has announced that the historic and iconic red seats that are so synonymous with Red Wings television broadcasts will be replaced with black seats at Little Caesar’s Arena. Why? Well evidently those red seats are a little too iconic… especially when no one is sitting in them.

If you’ve watched a Red Wings home game at any point during the past six months or so you’ll likely have noticed the red wall of empty seats on your television screen. This is obviously not a good look for the historic franchise, especially given that the team moved into the brand new building just 13 months ago. The red seats stick out like a sore thumb when there’s no one in them, a decidedly bad look on television screens.

Just take a look at this:

Ouch… again NOT a good look.

Here’s the official word from Granger, himself:

“When the Pistons agreed to move to downtown Detroit and play their home games at Little Caesars Arena, many design features were either finalized or already in production. We very much value our partnership with the Pistons organization and have made this decision together. This change is also made with support and input from industry-leading concert promoters and our television partners at Fox Sports Detroit. The transition to permanent black seats will take several months but will have no impact on our guest’s event-day experience.”

In the meantime, the organization has installed temporary black seat covers to help curb the embarrassment during live broadcasts.

Wings Nation summed things up best saying:

The red seats, as seen by the number of fans that bought them, were precious to the atmosphere at the Joe Louis Arena. To carry over that tradition to the LCA was significant to make this a new home for the Red Wings – now that they’re gone for the sole purpose of not being embarrassed, a little part of Red Wings legacy has gone with them. The whole organization should be ashamed.